American Observers in the Election of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union

Abstract

In 1958, a three-member delegation from the United States was invited as observers in the election of the Supreme Soviet in the Soviet Union. The Soviet leadership wanted to demonstrate the superiority of Soviet elections to the Western public. The key event during the visit of the American delegation was their meeting with the representatives of the Central Election Commission, when the Americans asked questions, and the Soviet side answered them. Despite some preparatory work to create a positive image of the elections in the USSR, there had not been plans to entirely stage them for the American guests. Although American observers recognized a high level of organization of elections in the USSR, even higher than those in the USA and Europe, they could not accept non-alternative elections as a variant of democracy and criticized the Soviet system. Thus, the dialogue between the USA and the USSR in this sphere ended in failure, and there were no other attempts to invite foreigners as election observers. The availability of sources that recorded the clash between two systems and two points of view on democracy enable to simultaneously look at the Soviet elections both from the outside — from the perspective of external observers (Americans) and from the inside — from the perspective of the Soviet official discourse. The article suggests that the Soviet electoral process should be examined not within political history but the through the approaches of historical anthropology, which will allow studying elections in the USSR as a special political ritual.